How the top banking apps stack up against their startup competitors

There was a time when retail banks had their heads in the sand
when it came to embracing the mobile phone revolution — but not
anymore.

A new report from App Annie shows that while apps from retail
banks still lag behind those of their upstart competitors in user
ratings, some have have seen their usage grow rapidly,
buoyed by new features.

Take Citi, which App Annie cites as "best-in-class" for retail
banks. The app saw usage balloon as Citi added features,
particularly a FICO score, which App Annie points out is a
central feature of popular startup Credit Karma. It seems
retail banks are looking to startups for inspiration.

But it's not all about new features, App
Annie's Director of Market Insights, Amir
Ghodrati, tells Business insider.

The most common word App Annie sees in five-star reviews for
finance apps is "easy." Their clean design is likely one reason
why the top apps from finance startups, from Venmo to Robinhood
to Acorns, still beat the top retail banks in user reviews,
scoring an average 4.2-star review (as opposed to the 3.6 by the
retail banks).

Here's a graphic that shows how the top apps stack up:

App
Annie

Still, the built-in user base of retail banks is hard to deny.
The top retail banking apps generally beat the top fintech
startup ones. Here's a chart that shows the top five of each:

App
Annie

And if you're curious what the top apps were for each category,
measured by monthly active users, here they are: